5 A man may be the wiser for remaining dumb, where the glib talker grows wearisome; 6 the silent man, has he nothing to say? Or is he waiting for the right time to say it? 7 Wisdom keeps its utterance in reserve, where the fool’s vanity cannot wait. 8 The babbler cuts his own throat; claim more than thy right, and all men are thy enemies.

9 For a mind ill trained, success is failure, winning is losing. 10 Gift given may bring thee nothing in return, or twice its worth. 11 Honour achieved may belittle a man, and modesty bring him renown. 12 What use to make a good bargain, if thou must pay for it sevenfold?

13 Word of wise man endears him; the fool spends his favours in vain. 14 Little will the fool’s gift profit thee; seven times magnified is all he sees.[2] 15 The paltrier the gift, the longer the admonitions that go with it, and every word of his an incitement to anger. 16 Out upon the man who lends today, and will have the loan restored to-morrow! 17 The fool has no friends, nor can win love by all his favours; 18 they are but parasites that eat at his table; loud and long they will laugh over him; 19 so injudiciously he bestows gifts worth having, and gifts nothing worth.

24 Some for very shame have courted their own ruin, resolved, though that opinion were worthless enough, to sacrifice themselves for another’s good opinion. 25 Some, too, for shame, make their friends high-sounding promises, and thereby gain nothing, but lose a friend.

26 A lie is a foul blot upon a man’s name, yet nothing so frequent on ill-guarded lips. 27 Worse than a thief is one who is ever lying, and to no better end may he look forward. 28 He lives without honour that lies without scruple, and shame is at his side continually.

[1] The Latin version substitutes ‘false award’ for ‘redress’, but it is doubtful whether this interpretation improves the sense of a passage already obscure.

[2] Literally, ‘his eyes are sevenfold’, a phrase which is sometimes understood as meaning that he expects a sevenfold return for his gift. But this meaning does not seem to be borne out either by usage or by the context, which emphasizes only the self-importance of the clumsy giver. But it must be admitted that the interpretation of this whole paragraph cannot be reached with certainty.

[3] Literally, ‘he will be conscience-stricken in his repose’. The Greek inserts a negative.